The Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, or the Hampton Institute, was founded in 1868 by the American Missionary Association (AMA). Now Hampton University, the school grew from the AMA’s efforts to educate freedmen and women during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Situated on the grounds of a former plantation in Hampton, Virginia, the school began admitting Native American students in 1878. According to a report published in 1901, Hampton’s purpose was “to train academic and industrial teachers for the Indian and Negro races, and to fit young men and women to become skilled craftsmen. Much stress is laid upon land-buying, home-life, and agricultural pursuits.”
Boarding schools like the Hampton Institute sought not only to educate but also to indoctrinate young Native and African American students in the values and customs of White society. Albert Shaw (1857-1947) an influential journalist and editor, noted on his visit to Hampton that “[y]oung negroes [sic] at Hampton are taught to take the historical rather than the controversial view about slavery.” Shaw was deeply committed to Progressive Era reforms, particularly in city government, politics, and education. He praised the ways in which the school emphasized “the gospel of character and hard work.” This was a philosophy carried abroad by one of Hampton’s most famous students, Booker T. Washington. “Learning by Doing at Hampton” originally appeared in Shaw’s influential American Review of Reviews, a journal he co-founded in 1890 with the British editor and investigative journalist William T. Stead (1849-1912).
